A leader in the contemporary art glass movement, Rick Strini was one of the first to revive the age-old tradition of Italian glass blowing in his backyard workshop on the central California coast. Strini fashions each one of his individually hand-crafted pieces of deep, lustrous glass, with impeccable craftsmanship and artistic innovation. Rick Strini began working with glass in 1965, and for more than 35 years has distinguished himself in the art glass world. Several pieces of Strini Art Glass have been displayed in the White House, and the Strinis were personal guests of the President in December 1998. Reflecting a rare marriage of art and science, Strini Art Glass embodies both the traditional and the contemporary, the past and the future.

"My interest in glass started in 1965 with my first kiln in my parent's back yard. 35 years later, my kilns are in my back yard and my work has achieved national recognition and has been shown worldwide. My current phase of work is the one I'm really happy with and achieving my best results. Working with suspending silver in the batch glass, I am producing art glass with blue and gold luster surface decoration reminiscent of the glass masters of the past. I am currently working full time making all of my work without the use of molds and continue to perfect and reproduce these colloidal colors. I use the most popular Italian-European traditional glass blowing techniques, that is at a bench, forming and manipulating the glass by hand. Unlike machine made glass, which is perfectly smooth and flawless, my art glass seeks visual character through aesthetic "imperfections". These characteristics mimic the handmade art glass of the past masters, Tiffany and Fredrick Carder. They come in the form of decorations, striations, random bubbles, and a variety of other natural effects. My art glass achieves its personality through these peculiarities, and no two pieces are ever identical."

Reviving the age old techniques of blown glass, Strini Art Glass shapes brilliant glass into objects of rare and timeless beauty. Marking the third decade of award winning achievements, Strini Art Glass continues to maintain a commitment to superior quality. Strini Art Glass is an important, respected and collectable craft.

Upon following complex melting procedures, Rick Strini gathers molten glass from the furnace and molds each piece into shape. Although his assistant brings extra "bits" of glass to help achieve a desired shape, Mr. Strini personally crafts and guides each piece through its final stages. With the skillful flick of a wrist or turn of the hand, the molten glass must be shaped just so. The finished piece is then deposited in a second kiln used to slow cooling. This process serves to relieve all stress caused by the shrinkage of glass. The finished pieces are then awarded the signature of the artist. This is the art of hand formed glass by one of the few individuals who can claim this legacy of skill and achievements.

Widely collected, Rick Strini's hand-crafted work has been exhibited nationally and internationally for three decades. In addition to a showing in the Louis Tiffany Exhibition at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, he has been included in many of the most prestigious catalogues available, including the Neiman-Marcus, Horchow, and Smithsonian catalogues.

AA. Degree, Art, San Jose City College, 1966-68
BA. Degree, Ceramics, San Jose State University, 1968-70
MA. Degree, Glass, University of California, Berkeley 1971